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We wanted to go somewhere. Preeti, the doc wife of Dee (Deepender) didn’t want to go to hills again, we were at Mussorrie on 26 Jan same year. Incidentally me and Smita had no great idea on where to go but we wanted to go. After all it was feb and a time when one must get out and visit places. So courtsey an old friend, we booked ourselves a part of Piramal Haveli which is a Neemrana property.

We were going to Shekhawati which is a region in Rajasthan best known for wall murals and old havelis. It lies between Jhunjhunu - Bikaner - Seekar triangle with Mandawa as central town and Fatehpur, Dundlod, and other small places around. We were in two cars (Mahindra Scorpio and Toyota Corolla), a total of 8 adults and 3 kids (Harshal, Tanya and Pihu)


Day 1 - Feb 16, 2007
We started early in the morning from Delhi. Hopped on to NH8. Took an exit towards Rewari. Then Mahendargarh, had breakfast on car bonnet and after a while we were at Bagad by 1100 hrs. Its about 200 Km away from Delhi and it will take you 5 hours. Good roads. Infact whole of Rajashtan has good roads, esp compared to MP, UP, Bihar. Post Rewari, there is not much traffic, infact very minimal traffic and which is good.

And there happens the damp-squib.

Piramal Haveli is owned by Piramals (Nicholas Piramal fame) and Neemrana folks have taken this on lease and they provide the hospitality services. Just like any other Neemrana hotel, this haveli is expensive. Essentially its a big rectangular building/haveli with a 1000 odd sq yard garden in fornt it which is flanked by a pathway with two exits. There is a portico and there are rooms on all three sides. There is a inner courtyard which also doubles up as dining area. Rooms are spacious but not modernly equipped (no tea maker for e.g.), good hospitality service and thats all about it. Outside this haveli lies the Bagad town. Bagad is not a great town to write home about so there is not much you can do then to take a good sun bath on the terrace or enjoy daal-baati.
After a quick discussion, we decided to have a quick tea and move quickly to the centre of Shekhawati viz. Mandawa. Courtsey fantastic roads, we were in Mandawa in another couple of hours and we headed to ‘Castle Mandawa’ - the place to stay. The route from Bagad goes like Bagad-Loharu-Chirawa-Mandawa. The last leg is amazing to believe. Its like a small thin black tar which is somehow managing to keep his character amid vast terrain of yellow-saffron-soilish colored land. The best part of these roads are there at any point of time you dont see more then 2 vehicles so you are almost alone. The experience is pretty filmy (aka un-believable) and one must take a eye-full of it.

Castle is a great prperty to be. Its a private property and owner keeps visiting this place. They also have another place in Mandawa called ‘Desert Resort’ and one in Jaipur called ‘Mandawa Palace’ or something like that. It has tons of rooms with each room very well equipped. Almost every room has a bathroom which is as big as the room itself, with minibars, tea makers, good quality furniture and if you prefer, a sitting area with period cushions. It has a small book-shop, a bar/dinining area, lawns, a super luxury pool, more lawns and few canons which I dont think work any more. Didn’t try.

So after taking a sumptuous lunch (Rs 2K) and few beers we all crashed on our beds except me who chose a chair instead. There is this tremendous fun sleeping on a chair, its that feeling on being in two worlds and gradually letting control go and fall asleep and then getting back control when you wake up. Sorry, getting distracted. So I got up and took a quick round of city.
Mandawa is a small, very small town which has few small shops, few havelis like Atma Ram, a gate as you enter the city through subhash chowk and few sweet shops. There is one restaurant on the other end of Subhash Chowk, two wine shops, one on subhash chowk and another just beyond the castle-street-turn. Some cattle and good no of firang tourist.

The dinner at Castle Mandawa is bit on the expensive side (Rs 600 per pax - buffet) so we hunted a small dharamhala (Rs 100 a night including food) which is run by a gentleman popularly known as ‘Pundit-ji’. He can possibly give you a decent meal (4 rotis, two vegetable) for Rs 50. Good food, esp once you had enough beer to not bother too much about taste and everything else. If you ask for ‘Punditji’ who runs a guest-house, someone will help you. Its a small town so everyone knows everyone.

Day 2 - Feb 17, 2007

We started towards Fatehpur and landed in ‘Angrezon ki Haweli’. Its 25 Km away from Mandawa and the best way to reach is to drive. There are state transport buses as well. This route is again very scenic with desert-soil (and not loose sand) accompanying you like a faithful wife all the way. Again no traffic. We did see lots of camels which some of us suggested as Wild Camels I didn’t believe them. Request you to not believe them. I have never heard about wild camels. ‘Angrezon Ki Haveli’ is a pvt property with Rs 200 as entry charges. It has a small cafe, I think a small shop and wall murals. We didnt spend much time here and moved towards the main Fatehpur city. From there we hopped on to the highway which connects Bikaner and then I think goes till the border. We had good lunch at a very nice hotel, missing the name, which had a good garden, good sun, lovely food and even after gorging like hell our total expense was 1K INR. Would recommend this hotel. We were back by early evening. Some more town-walking, more beer, Punditji food and we were back to bed.

Day 3 - Feb 18, 2007

Morning was spent visiting Castle. There is an old Castle which is not in use but they arrange visits for generally take you around. Ask for a guide. Old castle is just like another castle with separate rooms for men/womens, special rooms like sheesh-mahal, jharokhas, atrium and the usual confusing architecture where you have rooms at different levels, real constricted staircases with each openining into equally confusing area. There is a dark room which claims to be storing jewels or other valueable stuff like gold and you cannot go inside. Its completely dark and this room is raised on a platoform so you can extend your hand in and take pics.

We started at around 12 after last round of shopping, jootis are a good buy here, and the plan was to go to Pilani which is a detour away from the main road. So we took a different road from Mandawa which took us to Jhunjhunu highway and we were at Pilani in afternoon. It took us more then 3 hours to reach Pilani.

Pilani is a small town in Rajasthan which is famous for a technical college called BITS (Birla Institute Of Technology). Promoted and run by Birlas, one of the old big industry houses, it produces some of the great engineers every year. The campus is a big one with a large library housing tons of technical tomes serachable on the local intranet. One should visit Pilani for these reasons. To see the first car made in India, possibly this was before Birlas decided to start HM and come out with Amby. Campus also has a museum which we could not see because it closes at 5 in the evening. The other big attraction is an old Dakota of Ghanshyam Das Birla.

Imagine the pride each one of those students will feel on seeing the first car and a Dakota. Even if you are an average student, its enough motivation to make it big. From Pilani, the other car led by Deep took a different route (Pilani, Charkhi Dadri, Bhadurgarh, Delhi) and we sticked to same route (Mahindergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon, Delhi) and afer a few hours, it was all gone.